The revolutionary technology called the “blockchain” has recently been gaining popularity in a variety of industries. While this distributed database technology was first brought into the limelight by the digital currency Bitcoin, several industries were quick to adopt its usage in their systems and processes including the transaction processing and payment authorization companies. However, of late, companies from industries as diverse as media, packaged goods and even healthcare have started to show interest in the technology and have begun to invest in developing their own initiatives in the field.

The primary feature in blockchain, which distinguishes it from other technologies, is the unchangeable nature of each and every record in the database. This is why it has applications in several commercial and other transactions, records as well as financial record-keeping. The system works in such a way that no central authority is in charge and blockchains are essentially autonomous, decentralized, and managed databases.

Several research firms and surveys suggest that blockchain technology is going to be increasingly more popular in future. Surveys also point towards a wider adoption of the technology in life sciences, healthcare, and consumer product packaging. Several industry participants suggesting that they had a good knowledge of its usage and are already implementing it or are planning to implement it in one form or another.

This has also led to software and tech giants to step into the arena. Companies such as Microsoft are working at a rapid pace towards development of software and commercial applications that use the technology. Regardless of the technology’s growing appreciation, there is a class of executives who fear that the distributed nature of the blockchain will essentially take away control from the hands of the company and make it difficult to manage as control of critical operations may be lost. Proponents, however, argue that such fears are common with most new technologies and once the usage proves its robustness, blockchain will be widely adopted.